Netwrix freeware helps to prevent inside job

Netwrix, provider of change and configuration auditing software, has announced the release of Netwrix Effective Permissions Reporting Tool, a freeware solution designed to monitor privileged accounts by reporting on effective permissions in Active Directory and file shares. The Netwrix Effective Permissions Reporting Tool helps IT professionals to see who has access to what, assess the performance of their security policies and detect insider misuse at an early stage to minimise the risk of data breaches.

"While there's no doubt that these actors [employees] are a force to be reckoned with, insiders—current and former personnel, in particular—have become the most-cited culprits of cybercrime," states The Global State of Information Security Survey 2015 by PwC. "In the 2014 US State of Cybercrime Survey, we found that almost one third of respondents said insider crimes are more costly or damaging than incidents perpetrated by outsiders. Yet many companies do not have an insider-threat program in place, and are therefore not prepared to prevent, detect, and respond to internal threats."

Netwrix Effective Permissions Reporting Tool collects individual employee or group permissions for accessing data across the Active Directory domain or file servers. It also helps to detect excessive permissions and in the case of malicious activity, allows drilling down into effective permission details for rapid investigation to prevent privilege abuse. The reports made by Netwrix Effective Permissions Reporting Tool are valuable for both internal and compliance audits.

"Granting access rights to sensitive data is an inevitable need that allows employees to perform their duties, but unfortunately, human factor has always been one of the weakest links in the chain of cyber security," said Michael Fimin, CEO and co-founder of Netwrix. "Strengthening IT security is a question of both trust and control. Insiders are very hard to detect, which is why they are a nightmare for any organisation. The release of Netwrix Effective Permissions Reporting Tool makes the challenge of preventing an inside job much easier, and being a freeware it is available for any company, no matter what size they are and how tight their budget is."